Viral Cat Videos as Art? Film Festival Blurs Line

You might not see Surprised Kitty and immediately think of high art, but the highly respected Walker Art Center in Minneapolis begs to differ. Today, the institution is holding the first-ever Internet cat video film festival, and even before the event opened, it proved to be wildly popular with plenty of engagement (over 10,000 votes for favorites), an Animal Planet sponsorship, and the most traffic the Walker website has ever seen. Still, are Maru videos actually art? The museum is making a point to state that the art festival is not part of its well-established film and video department and is not being overseen by a curator, according to The Daily Beast. But art is supposed to evoke emotions, and if nothing else, Mango the kittendefinitely does that.

The festival, which is free to the public, takes place tonight at 8:30 at Walker's Open Field. Learn more at walkerart.org or follow the festival on Facebook.